Warning: Extremely Healthy! Chicken Salad with Honey, Goat Cheese and Nuts

Tried making this chicken salad and turned out exceptionally great so I’m sharing it with all y’all (serves two). Also, it’s super healthy so perfect if you’re dieting (the “I wanna have a healthy heart” diet, not the “I’m starving myself to get skinny” diet).

Ingredients:
Protein: 1 cooked chicken breast (substitute with tofu if you’re vegetarian)
Main ingredients: Mixed Salad, Goat cheese, green onions, grape tomatoes, honey, nuts (pecan & cashews), and olives.
Salad sauce: Olive oil, half a lemon, vinegar

	1. Get a large cooked chicken breast (de-skinned), seasoned the way you like (I like BBQ personally) and shred it up into tiny pieces.
	2. Place your salad mix in a large bowl, preferably with spinach, kale, dandelion greens, and other nutritious leafy greens. Add grape tomatoes and green onions. Mix it up with one teaspoon of olive oil, and add the juices from half a lemon, and about a spoon of vinegar.
	3. Top it up with about half a cup of olive slices, and a quarter cup of your favorite goat cheese (my favorite is Chevrai, but you can easily substitute it with Feta cheese).
	4. Mix it all up really good, then top it up with some nuts like cashews and half pecans and drizzle with honey. If you prefer, add a dash of fresh black pepper and mediterranean sea salts to taste, et voila!

Bon apetite!

How to create a SharePoint portal programmatically using “PortalProvisioningProvider”

Intro:
SharePoint is a great product to use, if you know how to leverage it properly. Thousands of companies out there that use SharePoint sadly miss out on some of the great quirks that SharePoint has to offer. One of my favourite ones is the ability to generate an entire portal structure on the fly. Not only does this save you time in the painstaking process of making sites and subsites (and assigning the right templates to them), but it also provides a clean structure which you can revisit at any time for restructuring or redesign purposes with little effort.

Step 1: Design it.

Do a high-level design of your portal’s structure based on what you (or client) needs, list all your main sites, and the subsites, and determine who’ll have access to using the different sections and on what content. As an example, we’ll set up our portal the following way.

1 Home
2 -Welcome (For all users)
3 -Employees (For users of type Employee)
–Orientation
–TeamBlogs
–KnowledgeBase
4 -Clients (For users of type Client)
–Projects
–Announcements
–Stakeholders
5 -About (For all users)

This is our portal structure, notice that under the Employees and Client subsites, I’m creating specific subsites that will cater to the type of user that’s logged in to my portal (If you want to read more on how to manage site groups and permissions, read this article: “Managing Site Groups and Permissions” http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/winsharepointadmin/HA011608101033.aspx).

Step 2: Manifest it.

Create the following file:
Your project SharePoint (AKA 12 Hive)\Template\SiteTemplates\RMSIManifest\RMSIPortalHomeManifest.xml

 

In this case, for the bottom-level subsites (like Employees/Orientation, or Clients/Projects), I’m using OOTB (Out Of The Box) site templates (like “STS#0″, which is the SharePoint Team collaboration site template).

By the way, you MUST have the following URL bookmarked; “List of Out of Box (OOB) Site Templates” http://blumenthalit.net/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=35b60df2%2D0af2%2D4e52%2D8c6f%2Dd3a64a542f45&ID=45

In all other cases, I’m using a custom site definition marked with my portal’s home site definition prefix (RMSIHome) followed by a numeric identifier. Note that this is not necessary, you’re better off using the OOTB site templates since they usually have what you would normally need. But if you would rather create a custom site definition rather than use a basic Publishing site, then follow this article through including Step 4.

If you want to read more on this discussion (the cons of creating custom site definitions), read: “Andrew Connell’s post on Site Definitions” http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2008/02/15/You-dont-need-to-create-site-definitions.aspx 

Step 3: Define it.

Create the following “WEBTEMP” file: *12 Hive*\Template\1033\XML\webtemp.RMSIPortal.xml

 

Notice that we’re leveraging the “PortalProvisioningProvider” (which implements SPWebProvisioningProvider), this takes the data found in “RMSIPortalHomeManifest.xml” from Step 1, and generates a portal structure based on that information. If you want exact details on the properties I used in the above example, read this article: http://blogs.technet.com/apurdon/default.aspx

Important! I’ve run into the problem where I was in an infinite loop and produced a vague “Stack Overflow” error. Took me a while to figure out that the reason was because I was using the same name in my Portal template (above) as in the site template “RMSIHome” (below) so save yourself some trouble, and ensure that they’re different as we’re doing here (in this case, I’ve named my template “RMSIPortal”).

Step 4 (optional): Refine it!

This step is only needed if you’re creating custom site definitions, so if all you’re using are OOTB templates like STS#0, you can skip this step.

Under SiteTemplates, create a folder called RMSIHome (this HAS to match your siteDefinition name prefix designated in your manifest file). In this folder, you will set up an ONET.xml file (which stands for an Office .NET file). You can reuse one of the OOTB Site Templates for this from this location: c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates.

Now, your file will contain all your site definitions indicated in Step 2, with the features used in each one of them, i.e.:




....

...

...

...

...

...

 

Notes:

What is Three-State Workflow?
This feature is used to track the status of a list item in three phases. As per the article below, “it can be used to manage business processes that require organizations to track a high volume of issues or items, such as customer support issues, sales leads, or project tasks.”
More info: “Use a Three-state workflow” http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101544311033.aspx

What is a TeamCollab Feature?
This tells your site how to activate certain features that define the collaboration lists and libraries in a given “Team Collaboration” Site.

What is the MobilityRedirect Feature?
This feature allows you to support pocket PC and other PDA browsers by taking them to a customized “/m/default.aspx” page in your site. If you think mobility would be useful for your site, read this: “Custom Mobility Pages for SharePoint” http://www.iwkid.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=36

For a list of all Farm, Site and Web Features in MOSS 2007 and their GUID’s, check this link:
“List of Features with GUIDs” http://www.thorprojects.com/blog/archive/2007/05/16/list-of-features-with-guids.aspx

Note: This helpful SharePoint portal blog post was originally posted at RapidMind Solutions.Com, Custom SharePoint Consultants.

Hiking at Fundy Trails

On Saturday we headed over to Fundy National Park, now every tourism board in New Brunswick talks about the great Fundy National Park, so we finally decided to head over there. My boss Stephen Nickerson & his wife Mandie were kind enough to offer us a ride and came along with us, as they had the season passes, plus they knew all the best trails and were essentially our guides.

Map of Fundy National Park

This is a map of Fundy National Park, highlighting all the trails.

Steve & Mandie posing at the entrance of Fundy National Park.

Here’s a view from the top of the “Coastal Trail”.

Here’s Steve posing in front of a tree. This is how the trail typically looks like, uphill pretty much all the way that’s why they call the difficulty level “strenuous”. Several bottles of water are a must to avoid dehydration.. Yikes.

Shelley and I, taking a quick break. Quick tips if you plan to go hiking for the first time:
1. Never wear jeans or heavy clothing (lesson learned for both Shelley & I).
2. Never bring a bookbag with your provisions, use a light hiking backpack that has air pockets on the back portion, and enough room for water, hiking snacks, map, etc.
3. For hiking snacks, we brought Granola bars (Trail-mix I hear are the best). Steve & Mandie also brought smoked beef (i.e. beef jerky), it’s got tons of protein & sodium to help you recover quickly.
4. Most importantly, bring enough water to keep yourself propery hydrated all the time, we brought 5 250ml bottles of water for Shelley & I, and even that wasn’t enough.
5. Do some stretching before you start the hike, trust me, you’ll be thankful you did.
6. Keep a steady pace. Don’t walk too fast, and don’t walk too slow, and keep the same pace throughout the hike in & out.
7. And of course, probably the most important thing is to wear shoes that are going to be comfortable. Hiking boots are recommended, of course, but keep in mind that they’re heavy. Some people wear the standard sneakers, but pad their ankles with special hiking pads to avoid a nasty trip that could sprain your ankle.

See that hill? Yeah, that’s what we just got done hiking through, AND you have to hike through it back to our starting spot/where the car is parked, d’oh!

The whole trip was worth it after seeing the falls. “Douglas Falls” pictured here.

Posing in front of the stream at the bottom of the waterfall. After a long day of hot and sweaty hiking, you tend to want to throw yourself at a pool at the bottom of the falls, but the water was too cold for my tastes.

But that didn’t stop us from heading over to a beach by a gorgeous lake where we had a refreshing dip, then it was time to go home after an amazing hiking trip at Fundy National Park, we’ll definitely be back!

The bootstrap-aid

While brainstorming some new business ideas at work with Jamie Morell & Steve Nickerson, we touched on the subject of how complicated it is to get a new business up and running.

I mean think about it. You’ve got a brilliant idea, a little risky but maybe you know a few people who can help you start it up, but you need money. Money to incorporate, money to buy inventory, money to build a website, and money to launch a marketing plan. Sadly, that money is nowhere to be found, and with your full time job you don’t have the time to incorporate, raise the money, do the work, and make the connections needed to make it a possibility. Maybe your dream of retiring early has to take a back seat… Or does it?

Let’s think of the money sources:

1. You can tap into a whole bunch of credit-cards. Fall deeply in debt, and if your business doesn’t take off, you’re worse off financially.
2. You can seek support from your friends & family, giving them shares of your company in return for financial support. But if your business fails, you risk alienating family members & friends.
3. You can go get a bank loan, but with today’s economy, we all know how difficult it is to convince a bank to fork up some money for a new, risky business, not to mention that the interest rates will likely not be favorable.
4. You can opt for a government grant. But with tons of red tape, tight schedules and ever-changing rules & regulations governing the grants, most people give up on their idea in the midst of all the paperwork.
5. VCs? We all know that Venture Capitalists won’t go anywhere near a risky business plan unless it’s either guaranteed in some way to work (usually by you having a good professional track record, doing extensive, expensive & exhaustive market research, or your business is already up and running and is making tons of money), and with all the hoops needed to get to the VC’s (and the huge chunk of your company that they’ll take in the process), the end result is a lot of hassle for an unlikely chance you’ll get supported.

So, as you can see, it’s not easy raising money, or bootstrapping your great business idea.

Fact: Most successful startups required less than $20,000 starting capital.

What if, you can post your idea publicly onto a sort of Boostrap-Aid website, without worrying about people stealing your ideas (possibly by having the site copyright your business idea posting as you make it). This platform allows you to “recruit” business partners, a board of directors from a pool of contacts specializing in your business idea, and a place where you can interactively develop your business plan with your newfound business partners.

Next, you determine the minimum capital required to start the business (say $30,000) and start soliciting donations from future shareholders, these are everyday Joe & Janes that love your idea so much, that they’re willing to contribute anything from $20 to a few hundred dollars. This money is held in Escrow by the Boostrap-Aid website until you reach a high enough level to meet your “Minimum Capital” required to start your business. That’s right, I’m talking about micro-financing. If you don’t make it (say within a year), then maybe it’s time to go back to the drawing board, so the Escrows are released back to the donors (so no one’s lost any money). If you do make it and you manage to hit that minimum limit, all the donations are withdrawn from Escrow and go into your new “business account” in return for automatic allocations of shares from the donors (based on how much they contributed), and presto!

Now you’ve got yourself a business plan, your shareholders, starting capital, and a board of directors, instantly and effortlessly. You didn’t take out any huge loans (therefore, you did not start off being in debt), you didn’t rack up your credit cards, you did not sacrifice a huge chunk of ownership to VC’s, and best of all, you know that your idea will work because you’ve got that many donors who believe in you and are willing to back you. Now, all you have to do is get to work.

I am seriously thinking of starting such a “Bootstrap-Aid” website (I’m resisting the urge to call it “Strappacino”), my goal is to eventually build an integrated platform that not only provides you with the tools to help you build your capital & corporate structure, but also gives you tools to physically start your corporation, teach you about SEO & Marketing techniques, and connect you to experts who will ensure that your new business idea becomes a success. In other words, a one-stop shop for your new business idea & incorporation from start to finish.

Feedback? Suggestions? Want to help me do it?

How to create a SharePoint portal programmatically using “PortalProvisioningProvider”

SharePoint is a great product to use, if you know how to leverage it properly. Thousands of companies out there that use SharePoint sadly miss out on some of the great quirks that SharePoint has to offer. One of my favourite ones is the ability to generate an entire portal structure on the fly. Not only does this save you time in the painstaking process of making sites and subsites (and assigning the right templates to them), but it also provides a clean structure which you can revisit at any time for restructuring or redesign purposes with little effort.

Read More…

Pax per… what?

Welcome to my blog. Yes, I’ve been an IT professional for almost ten years, and I’ve never had a blog before now. I can’t explain that myself, but here I am so hopefully you get to enjoy my posts, and maybe learn something cool from them! If you like it (or not), please comment, constructive critcism is always welcome.

So, before we get to explaining “Pax Perfectus” let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a first-generation Canadian immigrant. I live in beautiful Atlantic Canada, in a little province called New Brunswick. I was born in Tanzania (East Africa) in the late 70′s, and my parents migrated to the United Arab Emirates (of Dubai fame) when I was young to seek a “better life” for my elder sister & I. My father (and subsequently, myself) is of Yemeni origins, even though I’ve never visited Yemen in my life (yes I plan to make the trip some day, I hear it’s beautiful). So I grew up in the UAE. In summer, most kids went to summer school or camp or stayed at home and watched TV or whatever. Not me, I always went to my dad’s company (he started and ran a series of successful computer repair and training companies like CESCO and ATCOS), the company bought and fixed every computer you could think of at the time, from the ancient IBM PCs to Sinclairs, and MSX’s to the good ol’ Commodore 64′s and 128′s. It was actually the first such company founded in the UAE at a time when people didn’t even know what the hell a computer was (except maybe that it was an expensive electronic toy, or an oversized calculator).

So, one day, when I was 8 years old, I was rudely and suddenly exposed to programming. It all started when I sneaked into the computer repair room, hooked up the nearest Apple II and grabbed a 5.25″ disk (yeah, remember those?) with the game “Wilderness Campaign” in it. While I was enjoying attacking rabid wolves and abominal snowmen, all of a sudden the game crashed and spewed a whole bunch of garbage. Normal kids would’ve left the damn thing alone, rebooted and started a new game or something, but no, not me; I was abnormal. With my stubborn nature, I was determined to somehow “fix it”. I started reading the garbage and could make up words, like “if… then” and “goto 15″ (yes, this was BASIC!) so as I was reading this for some reason it made a lot of sense, like connecting the dots. I was told by the computer that it crashed at a certain line, which pointed to a very simple math formula that somehow went awry. So I put two and two together and fixed it, and imagine the look on my face when I reran the program, and I could play without a hitch! Once I figured out the mechanics of the code a few days later, I hacked the game to give me unlimited canteens & gold, that way I was more or less invulnerable in the game. That’s when I realized: coding was awesome!!… Inadverdently entering the domain of tech geeks and earning a pair of spectacles.

So, that story summarizes two things that particularly characterize my passions: programming and games, and that’s also what drove me (12 years later) to build one of the coolest and most popular browser-based text adventure/RPGs of all time, but that’s a story for another day.

Ok, let’s go back to “Pax Perfectus”, so in latin, Pax = Peace and Perfectus = Complete (more or less). That’s actually got something to do with my name. My first name, Salem (derived from the root SLM), is arabic for peaceful (or alternatively, safe) (think arabic “Salam” akin to Hebrew “Shalom”, which means Peace), and my last name, Al-Tamimi, can be derived to the Arabic root word TAM (like Hebrew, Arabic words are often translated by taking them back to their root word, then expanding on that based on context). So, TAM in arabic means, yeah, you guessed it, Complete. So that word in the form of: Al-Tamimi, could very well mean “perfectionist”, so now you have Pax Perfectus, “Complete Peace”, or the Peaceful Perfectionist… More or less.